This paper comprises two parts: a) theoretical aspects of transport planning; and, b) gools of governmental transport plans. The author emphasizes throughout the need for planning in this sector. Transport planning is considered to be an infrastructural factor in the plan for economic action. The subject is thus treated here as a high priority goal of government programs for expansion and integration of the industrial structure, and therefore, as an indispensable unit in government efforts aimed at dynamizing the Brazilian development process. In establishing the basic relationships between the transport sector and the economic system, the author points out that although the goals of the transit services must of necessity be viewed as production costs, and that therefore the rendering of such services should comply with all the requirements of an investment - lower economic cost, for instance - it is a fact that in developing economies, where basic technological inputs are scarce, there are transport projects to be found which however admittedly unfeasible from an economic standpoint are nonetheless implemented for political, military-strategic and social reasons. In studying the objectives of a transport plan - which should always be a set of means for achieving an end, never an end in itself - one must keep in mind that in all stages of economic development the policy on transport may accord varying degrees of emphasis to the different goals of internal planning, depending on the state of development of the country or region at hand. In Canada, for instance, the building of canals, between 1800 and 1850, linking the rivers Saint Lawrence, Rideau and Ottawa, was undertaken in order to meet the needs of trade among the communities which had sprung up along the waterways. In the United States, the settlement of the Middle-West and of the West, between 1850 and 1900, having gencrated extensive trading, explains and justifies the investments in a railroad system; in Brazil, expansion of agriculture led to expansion of highway investments. At present, in the wake of rapid post-war industrialization, the objectives of transport planning are basically the following: a) reduction of operation and maintenance costs; b) increasing safety of transportation; c) less traveling time. In some affluent, i.e., high income level economies, transport policy has come to contemplate social benefits such as comfort and lowering of the accident rate rather than reduction of operational costs per square meter for motor vehicles. Based on B. G. Hutchinson's work on the relationship between stages of development and the objectives and decisional criteria regarding the transport system in Canada - and making allowance for changes in values and attitudes due to collective aspirations - the author endeavors to relate phases of Brazilian economic development to decision criteria and sectorial goals of the transport system (appendix 1). Planning at intersectorial and sectorial levels is also examined. In addition, the author reviews the relationships between the transport sector and the other sectors of the economy, as well as the relationship between the different forms of transportation themselves. Planning at the modal level and analysis of deployment of funds on the different alternatives for each modality represents a further contribution to the study of planning for transport. Finally, the author provides a broad perspective of the expansion of the transport system in Brazil, focalizing the general and specific gools of government plans for this sector; this is followed by a brief evaluation of results (appendix 2). After pointing out deficiencies in the variouns plans, in this respect emphasizing duplication of tasks assigned to units operating in the same field, he suggests that efforts should be made towards a joint action by the Ministry of Planning and General Coordination, and the Ministry of Transport. In the second part, the author presents the government plans for transport submitted from 1951 until 1970, to wit: Plan of the United States-Brazilian Joint Commission (1951-52); Program of Goals, prepared by the Development Council (1956-60); Three-year Plan for Economic and Social Development (1963-65); Program for Government Action - PAEG (1964-66); and Strategic Program for Development - PED 0968-70).

The article begins stressing the relevance of the phenomenon usually labeled as authority in the area of the social sciences. The author undertakes a general review of current approaches to its conceptualization and winds up suggesting what could be a more consistent scientific leading to such a theoretical conceptualization. The different conceptualizations are divided into three basic approaches: 1. authority as legitimate power; 2. authority as formal power and 3. authority as a quality of a relationship. The first approach is seen as inconsistent, since power as such cannot be legitimized but only its source, i.e., authority itself. The second tendency is considered to be of little value, since it reduces the complexity of the phenomenon to one of its least relevant aspects, namely the right to command. Furthermore, both tendencies are criticized for not bringing a solution to the problem of conceptualization, since they rely on the phenomenon of power, which is conceptually undefined. The third tendency is seen as more consistent, as it treats the phenomenon as a dynamic process resulting from the interaction between the claims and the compliance to authority, leading to the possibility of conceptualization in terms of systems analysis. Simon's attempt to operationalize the phenomenon is seen as opposite to this last tendency. The limitations of Simon's attempt are interpreted as a consequence of his overemphasis on the need for operationalization of concepts without a previous theoretical discussion. At this point, the author arrives at the conclusion that the most satisfactory strategy would be to give the phenomenon a through theoretical discussion, which would possibly lead to greater consensus. This would permit the development of operational definitions which could be scientifically more useful. About this first conclusion, the author discusses the concept of authority in Weber, noting that it remains one of the most consistent theoretical basis for the conceptual framing of the phenomenon, if the following are take into account: 1. introduction of the distinction between the concept domination and the concept authority as legitimate domination, implicit in Weber's works; 2. the interpretation of power and authority as different phenomena, also implicit in Weber's works; 3. the interpretation of the ideal types as mere sets of theoretical hypotheses; and 4. the maintenance of the distinction between the claim to legitimacy and legitimacy itself. The author begins his final remarks with this theoretical interpretation of Weber and, by comparing it with Slau's considerations, arrives at the conclusion that the phenomenon of authority could be looked upon as a form of social control which is analytically different from others such as power or influence. Ali three would originate from situations of dependency between ruled and rulers. Finally, it is noted that authority, as a form of social control, should be considered chiefly as the result of a system of control of values, exerted on the rulers by the ruled, and of a system of social control inside the ruled group, and not as the mere existence of formal or informal instruments of power or influence in a ruling position.